International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)
e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 05 | May -2017
p-ISSN: 2395-0072
www.irjet.net
An Innovative Approach to Recycle Footwear Industry Wastes Muhammed Saleem I P1, P Lingeswaran2, Hassankutty K P3 1Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Shree Venkateshwara Hi-Tech Engineering College,Tamilnadu,India 3Department
of Mechanical Engineering, MEA Engineering College,Kerala,India
---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - Foot wear industry generates a lot of wastes
every year which requires technological interventions for the safe guarding of environment. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) is a commonly used polymer in footwear industry. It generates a big quantum of wastes worldwide. These wastes must be recycled or re-utilized otherwise it creates lot of environmental problems. Natural rubber (NR) is an elastomer available plenty in Kerala having many industrial applications. It’s cost is increasing up significantly (10 times in 10 year). Natural rubber product developing units are facing a big problem in terms of cost and quality. This work is to examine the feasibility of introducing EVA waste into natural rubber in a technologically viable way without sacrificing the basic qualities of NR. Different samples are prepared by varying the Phr (parts per hundred of rubber) of EVA waste in NR matrix. Rheological examination was carried out to determine the optimum cure time. Mechanical properties of the system are studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was carried out to evaluate the performance of blend in terms of glass transition temperature and crystallization temperature. Morphology of specimen is studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Development of a product from optimized formulation shall be tried Key Words: EVA, Phr , Natural rubber, blend, mechanical properties, Glass transition temperature
1.INTRODUCTION The environmental pollution produced by industry residues is one of the largest concerns of human society. Polymers play a vital role in this regard, since the demand of polymeric products increased over the last decades due to their many industrial applica¬tions. As synthetic polymers do not decompose easily, their residues constitute a serious problem to the environment. Ethylene vinyl acetate is a polymer used as a substitute for leather in footwear industry. It is used for making the insoles and innersoles of shoes. More than 17 billion pair of shoes are produced worldwide every year. This creates enormous amount of wastes. These wastes must be recycled or re-utilized otherwise it creates lot of environmental problems. Natural rubber is an elastomer available plenty in Kerala having many industrial applications. The major uses for natural rubber are for vehicle tires and conveyor belts, shock © 2017, IRJET
|
Impact Factor value: 5.181
|
absorbers and anti-vibration mountings, pipes and hoses. It also serves some other specialist applications such as in pump housings and pipes for handling of abrasive sludge, power transmission belting, water lubricated bearings, etc. It’s cost is increasing up significantly(10 times in 10 year) .Natural rubber product developing units facing a big problem in terms of cost and quality .This project is to examine the feasibility of introducing EVA waste into natural rubber in a technologically viable way without sacrificing the basic qualities of NR
2. 2.EXPERIMENTAL EVA waste used here for the test is collected from nearby footwear industry. Sulphur with zinc oxide and stearic acid are used as vulcanizing agents. .MTBS and TMTD are the activators used for vulcanization. The optimized formulation for mixing NR and EVA is found out by trial and error method. First NR and EVA waste are pressed separately between two rollers mixing mill and then they mixed each other with the formulations shown in table 1.curing characteristics is determined in a rheometer which is shown in table 2.Diffrent samples are prepared by varying the concentrations EVA waste .samples are named as N100, NE30. NE40, NE50, NE60, NE100. Where N stands for natural rubber and E stands for EVA waste. Samples are taken into injection moulding machine for pressure vulcanization. This process involves heating the mix in a mould under pressure of 2000pounds/square inches at a temperature of 150 °C and kept it for a time equal to curing time. The cured samples are taken out to perform various testing.
2.1. Testing for Mechanical Properties Mechanical tensile test and tear test is carried out in universal testing machine at a test speed of 500mm per minute as per ASTM standard D3574. The test temperature was 180Cand humidity was 50%. Six samples were tested. The mechanical properties obtained are tensile strength,
ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal
|
Page 783